A few days before our nation was attacked by a handful of Muslims, I boarded the USS Boxer in Pearl Harbor.  As a guest of my son, Marine Sergeant Bill Platt, I was participating in what the Navy and Marine Corps call a "Tiger Cruise," accompanying my son on the last leg of his Middle East deployment back to San Deigo.

We were about half-way across the Pacific when the Muslims crashed our planes into NYC and Washington DC.  As I stepped out of the cockpit of a Huey with my son, I heard the fateful announcement over the PA system.

The next morning, I was sitting in the briefing room, watching replays on the big-screen television of the attacks.  After a period of time, I stood up and walked to the back of the room to talk to two retired Israeli officers who were there as guests of another US Marine.

When I sat down, I began the conversation by remarking, "I guess our nation has begun experiencing what your nation has been dealing with since 1949."  One of the Israeli officers responded by saying, "Yes, but your nation has one big problem."  I replied, "What problem are you referring to?"  He said, "Your nation has a tradition of negotiating with its enemies.  Unless your President understands that this enemy does not want to negotiate, he will not succeed in protecting this nation.  We have found that this enemy does not negotiate, because he wants you dead."  After studying the Quo'ran to find the answers as to why followers of this so-called "peaceful religion" would attack us, I found some answers. For example, read the following quotations from the Muslim "holy" book:

Terrorize and cut off  the heads and fingertips of unbelievers – Surah VIII.12 (8:12) – “Remember thy Lord inspired the angels with the message: “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers; I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers; smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger tips off them.”

 Also:

Forcing Christians to pay a tax – Surah IX.29 (9:29) – “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden what hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messengers.  Nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth from among The People of the Book [the Christians], until they pay the Jizyah [tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

And finally:Anti-Jewish verses – Surah V.82 (5:82) – “Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans;” 

I fear that fools will elect a President who not only is anxious to negotiate with our enemy, but already enjoys an endorsement by spokesmen of that same enemy of America.

We would do well to listen to the enemy of our enemy who has fought our mutual enemy for a half-century.

Pray for the young people who say they like Obama because they can "relate to him," and because of a lack of life experiences haven't a clue about what's really at stake.

"Winners walk out laughing; losers cry, 'Deal again!'"